Bridget Riley
dal 5/9/2007 al 5/10/2007
Segnalato da
5/9/2007
Bridget Riley
Robert Sandelson Gallery, London
Paintings and works on paper from 1970s and 1980. The exhibition will include several seminal works and trace her artistic development from the dazzling black and white works of the 1960s, through to her vibrant later work from the 1980s.
Paintings and works on paper from 1970s and 1980
The exhibition will present a selection of works by Bridget Riley, one of Britain’s most celebrated artists.
Riley (b. 1931) made a name for herself at an international level in the 1960s with her black and white paintings, using pattern and shape to create mesmerising pieces. Her artistic tendencies then developed into colour by the late 60s, when she began to produce her iconic vertical stripe paintings. The vertical stripe seemed to have an almost unchallenged superiority over any other structural element at the beginning of the 1970s. However, Riley found that there were restrictions when creating these vertical stripes; and developed a basis that apparently did not allow for more than three to five colours in each painting as the effectiveness of the image depended on the interaction between colour and light.
From the mid 70s Riley began experimenting with the wave, this series appeared to incorporate more colour and throughout it is evident that Riley explored how form and colour may combine to give the impression of heaving and twirling, thrusting and receding. The colours and forms appear to swim backwards and forwards in spatial and rhythmic depths. By the 1980’s Riley had arrived at a palate of approximately 100 carefully selected colour values, from which she then created a colour bracket for each painting.
The exhibition will include several seminal Riley works and trace her artistic development from the dazzling black and white works of the 1960s, through to her vibrant later work from the 1980s. Her arresting canvas Garland, 1983, represents one of her most recognisable styles - simple bands of colour creating a visual rhythm. This style developed following her travels Egypt where she visited ancient burial sites in the Nile Valley (1979-1980). Inspired by their vivid decorations and consistent use of certain groups of colours, Riley began to explore the potential of the ‘Egyptian palette’ in her own work.
Other works include Aurulum, 1977, a work which radiates with pale, coloured light and is a strong example of her delicate curve paintings. Into Place, 1987, is an important example of her ‘zig’ period where Riley introduced the dynamic diagonal to disrupt the balance of her pictorial space. Also showing will be the entire set of Fragments, 1965: a group of seven striking screenprints, printed directly onto plexiglass – a new material developed in the sixties, which reflects her and other artists’ preoccupation with the new, the synthetic and the fresh.
In 1965 Riley exhibited alongside other influential ‘Op’ artists in the first major international exhibition of ‘Op Art’: ‘The Responsive Eye’, held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. This exhibition gained Riley huge public popularity and elevated her to international status as an artist. Riley has exhibited internationally in such venues as The Tate Britain, London 2003; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Wellington, 2005; and Aaran, Switzerland 2005.
Robert Sandelson Gallery
5 Cork Street - London
Admission free